If you really want to question how USAC spends its money and how our student fees are used, why not question the amount of money that Jazz Reggae gets, or Bruin Bash, or even the Daily Bruin itself. There are is so much money that students have paid in student-iniciated funds and for some of the places where our money has gone too, few people have only benefited from them. Why don’t we cut these programs and put the money towards “student-oriented programs and services”? We won’t cause we are selfish about our own programs. Even the Daily Bruins is hypocritical of this when it asked for money to save ASUCLA with the whole PLEDGE thing, but they didn’t state any ideas on how to be more cost-effiecent. Yes we are in rough times, and I understand that we are in a money crunch, but attacking a program that was trying to bring Bruins together is a low blow Daily Bruin.

I read another article earlier, also written by a DB staffer, which said expected attendance was only 2,000, so 4k actual attendees actually TOPPED expected attendance… [http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/10/homecoming]
The other article also made it clear that the funds had to be allocated to some sort of large event, and so diverting the money towards something else like individual scholarships was not possible in the first place, kind of destroying the premise of this entire editorial.

Which article has the correct facts? I’m pretty disappointed in the DB Editors, this is just blatant inconsistency.

Seems like Ms. Emily Resnick was in a no-win situation with the Daily Bruin. She was elected by the student body with the expectation that she carry out the items on her campaign platform. She puts on from what I can tell was a moderately successful event (the story on the front page states that 2000 people were expected to attend but they more than doubled that, which I’ll count as a success) and she gets blasted by the editorial board. I’ll bet if she didn’t put on the event, she’d get criticism for not carrying out her campaign promises. If I were her, I’d rather get criticized for putting on a positive event that thousands of people enjoyed than the alternative. And as “2011 alumni” pointed out, I’m pretty sure the fund from which Homecoming received money is designated for USAC to allocate for events like Homecoming—in fact, Bruin Bash and Jazz Reggae receive money from surplus quite regularly.

The surplus funds used did not have to be spend on “large scale events” or for that matter spent at all. They easily could have gone back into BOD funding which all 900 student groups have access to— like many USAC Councils in years past have opted to do.

The only disappointing thing about this opinion piece is that it did not come out when the event was being planned so that students knew where the money was going. There were many people on campus, some even in the pages of the Bruin, saying that this event was going to cost way too much for an event that is being restarted after the campus lost interest years ago. Instead of spending around $20,000 on this event the first year they restarted it, they should have only used a few thousand dollars out of BOD funding this year and then increased the funding in later years if the event went well. Now UCLA is stuck in this situation where the money was spent, a sizable group of students think it was not spent well, and students can’t do anything except hope that next year someone will stand up sooner to ask if the money is actually worth it.

The Daily Bruin for years has done some of the best reporting in the entire country (college or otherwise) and it would have been great for them to apply the same reporting dedication to this story weeks ago. Hopefully going forward there is a lot of attention to it in these pages.

For anyone that wants to use this example to question why things like JazzReggea or BruinBash and the Daily Bruin that get large amounts of student government fees, it is because these are organizations or events that have for years proven that they can efficiently and successfully spend money that UCLA gives them. Homecoming has yet to meet any of those standards and the sad thing is the campus is only realizing this after the fact.

The way I see it, even though some students and the Daily Bruin don’t like the fact that money was spent on this event, a large amount of students did, as illustrated by the fact that they voted for Emily last Spring. Life sucks and you don’t always get what you want. However, it seems that of the student body that cared to vote last year, the majority of the people supported Emily and received what they voted for. That’s democracy.

I had a great time at the Homecoming rally. It was a lot of fun to have an event that brought the school together, allowed many student groups to have booths, and got people excited for the game on Saturday. I think the boost in school spirit played a role in the huge amount of support at Saturday’s game and helped us win even though we were predicted to lose. The flashmob was a lot of fun too! Overall I think it was a successful event and I have lots of respect for Emily Resnick for following through with her campaign goals and putting on such a big event in a short period of time. It was a success!

I had a great time at the Homecoming rally. It was a lot of fun to have an event that brought the school together, allowed many student groups to have booths, and got people excited for the game on Saturday. I think the boost in school spirit played a role in the huge amount of support at Saturday’s game and helped us win even though we were predicted to lose. The flashmob was a lot of fun too! Overall I think it was a successful event and I have lots of respect for Emily Resnick for following through with her campaign goals and putting on such a big event in a short period of time. It was a success!

I don’t see why people are trying to defend the event. It was lackluster – just admit it. Look at it as a learning experience. I know that people are trying to defend their slate, but let’s just call a spade a spade. Maybe it is something that should probably not be organized next year. The Daily Bruin really got the proper perspective on it – the event is really not needed. The funds if anything could have been used for Beat ‘SC Rally and made that event even bigger as opposed to try to “revive” an old tradition. There’s a reason why it ended. But, on the flip side, I commend the groups involved to take on the daunting task of trying to pull off a big event. It is definitely not easy. Let’s look at this event and, as a campus, look forward on how effective these type of events are and what future councils can do.

OI went’ to homecoming. It wasn’t what I expected but it wasn’t bad either. Yes, there needs to be more of something but I don’t know what. I think they should try again and learn from other universities what they do for homecoming. Learn from your mistakes; learn from others. Definitely don’t listen to those who want to put you down for not meeting their expectations. If they think they can do it better, then they should step up and be part of the homecoming committee.

It is better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all. Not trying is failure itself.

Kuddos to homecoming for trying! Don’t give up! Try at least one more time to make it better.